Comrades in Wolf's Clothing
by Ha'Driana
Summary: Confusion shakes Section One when a new operative comes into play. Operations and Madeline don't know what is going on, nor does George. One thing is for sure, this operative was 'bought' and someone is pulling the strings from higher up.
1. Chapter 1

Operations looked out at the command center, watching Birkoff coordinate a mission in Belgium. The head of Section One was getting tired of George calling him all the time but something he was getting even more tired of was not knowing what was going on in his Section. Madeline came up behind him, saying that the head of Oversight had arrived and was in the tower. Operations acknowledged it and made his way to meet his 'guests' with his partner, Madeline by his side.   
**"Good afternoon, Paul."** George said as his hosts entered the room.   
**"Hello, George,"** replied Operations, his voice even though down to business. **"To what do we owe this visit?"**   
**"We have found an operative."**   
**"And?"**   
**"Actually, we bought an operative. I want you to see the quality of the product."**   
_Product?_ Madeline thought, remaining silent as the two men conversed. _Interesting._   
**"I have not seen him yet so it is as much as a mystery to you as it is to me. It comes from higher up, Paul. Just keep him under heavy surveillance and we'll see what to do with him. He will be arriving tomorrow morning. Good day, Paul, Madeline."** With that the head of Oversight ended his brief visit leaving Paul and Madeline alone.   
**"What do you think?"** Paul asked as they made their way back to the Perch.   
**"I don't know. There are so many possibilities. Ask me when I've seen the operative."** She replied and walked off to her office, leaving Operations to his thoughts. 

Nikita was visiting Walter's workshop since she had nothing else to do when Birkoff came in hurriedly. **"Guess what."**   
**"What, Birkoff?"** Nikita asked, leaning her elbows on Walter's table.   
**"There's a new operative coming tomorrow."**   
**"Operatives come in every week."** Walter said, coming setting down a stack of panels for the next mission.   
**"Yeah, but from what I've heard this one has been bought! And get this, Operations and Madeline don't know anything about him."**   
_Bought?_ Walter questioned himself. _This is new for Section._   
**"Could be just a rumor,"** the blond woman said dryly.   
**"I don't think so. There's a briefing about an hour after he's supposed to arrive."** The tech replied. Both Walter and Nikita thought he was hoping a little too much.   
**"Just coincidence."** Walter stated and waved both young people away. **"Go. You both have something better to do than speculations about a shadow."**   
**"Ask Michael, ok?"**Birkoff asked Nikita as they went their separate ways. His only answer was a backhanded wave as she walked away. 

Nikita walked into Michael's office and found him reading over a few panels. He looked up and keyed him the code to cut off any surveillance in his office, thinking that this might be of a personal nature.   
She sat down in the chair in front of his desk. "Is it true there's a new operative?"   
He looked away, finding something interesting to watch outside is window. "No." He stated and punched in the code for surveillance to come back on. "That's all. Briefing tomorrow, 0830."   
The woman got up and walked out, not believing a word he had said. 


	2. Chapter 2

0730, Section One   
Operations and Madeline stood before the metal door of Section One, waiting for it to open and reveal to them the new operative. A few seconds later, it opened and there stood a tall young woman with short silverish-brown hair and yellow green eyes. The woman walked up to Operations and handed him a panel.   
Paul looked it over for the better part of five minutes, while Madeline looked directly at the girl to find any form of anxiety. Much to her surprise, she found none. Operations looked up and handed back the panel. **"Follow me."** He lead the girl to Birkoff's centre. **"Upload her panel and get her settled in."** Operations left them as the girl handed the panel to the tech.   
Birkoff eyed her warily as if worried that she would pull a gun on him. **"Um, it will take a while so sit down."** He motioned towards a chair in front of a station as he turned back to his computer and plugged in her panel to load its contents into Section One's mainframe. The young man turned back to his guest and gave a lopsided smile which fell when he noticed the gun strapped to her thigh, the gun holster under the jacket and the one gloved hand. Their eyes met, the intensity in hers was enough to make him stop in mid thought. **"So, um, what's your name?"** _Nice going Birkoff, you can just turn around and look it up!_ He berated himself mentally.   
It took her some time to answer. Birkoff was about to ask again when she spoke up. **"Alana."** Her arms crossed before her and spread her legs as she leaned back into the chair, taking a very unladylike pose.   
**"Well, um, glad to meet you. My name's Birkoff. If you need anything, just come to me. Most of the time, I'm the mission's operator so we'll be working a lot together."** The only answer he go was a curt nod. **"Over there is Walter's place. He'll get you anything you need. Guns, panels, tracers, the whole bit." **The young man from Section One motioned off to the side to Walter's workshop but she only nodded once again, without even looking.   
Nikita walked up to them. She gave a smile to Alana, who nodded again. **"How's it going Birkoff?"** The woman asked, looking at his screen. She caught a glimpse of something but it was gone before she could make any sense of it.   
**"Not bad. Nikita meet Alana. The new operative that came in this morning."** The tech gave the blond woman a questioning look. **"What is it?"** He asked, wondering why Nikita had a blank stare all of a sudden.   
She snapped out of her trance, her gaze shifting to Alana, who had not moved a muscle. **"Nothing. I'll talk to you later Birkoff. Nice to meet you Alana."** The new operative nodded once again and Nikita walked away towards Walter's workshop. 

0829, Section One   
Michael, Nikita, Birkoff and Madeline sat around the briefing table. Operations looked at his watch and was about to complain that Alana was late when she walked in. She still had her guns and even had a self-confident aura about her. **"You are late."** Paul ground out. She said nothing and sat down. Operations grumbled something and started on the briefing.   
A couple of minutes later, they were excused and went their separate ways. Alana and Madeline remained because the Section One tactician had asked the new operative to stay a moment. **"You came in late. Make sure that doesn't happen again."** Madeline said, her face covered by an impassive mask.   
Alana stood up. **"I was on time."** The new recruit looked down at Madeline, wearing her own indifferent mask. "Anything** else, ma'am?"** The older woman waved a dismissive hand in reply. The operative walked away without a backward glance. 

0845, Section One   
Operations and Madeline watched Walter at his workshop as he distributed the equipment to those operatives that would need it. Paul's brows furrowed as he watched the new recruit, Alana, make her way past Walter's place and down a hall. **"What do you think of her?" **He asked Madeline though keeping his eyes on the place where the person in question had disappeared.   
**"She seems to have herself well established in her mind. Self-assurance and almost arrogant. We will see how she does on this mission," **was the second in command of Section One's reply before she walked out of the perch. 


	3. Chapter 3

2100, An abandoned factory on the outskirts of Berlin

Nikita loaded the clip into her gun with a loud snap and looked at Michael on the other side of the small table in the van. The man looked up for a moment before going back to scrutinizing the information displayed on the screen in front of him. The two hadn't spoken much that day and Nikita wondered what was bothering him so much to make him that silent, but then she realized that he always had a good reason. Nikita's gaze slid over to Alana who sat quietly by another man named Alex. The new recruit hadn't said much of anything either so Nikita didn't know much about her background, but the woman's silence said enough of her personality.

The van slowed to a stop and they poured out to go to their first marks. Nikita wasn't quite sure where Alana was, Michael was doing tactical, but she could almost make out the other woman sliding through the darkness, becoming a part of the shadows. Alex followed her closely, trying to be as discreet as he could. The two took cover behind a rather large rock and waited for directions. Nikita made her way closer and ducked behind a car close to the entrance. Nothing moved outside, everything was dead quiet. **"Clear,"** she whispered softly. 

**"Proceed to your second marker,"** was Michael's cool reply. Seconds later, the whole team moved closer to their target, a factory. Nikita didn't have enough time to check on Alana and Alex and wasn't about to waste time on it. She had to trust the fact that Operations felt that the new recruit was ready for missions. 

Nikita made her way to the side of the building and, after holstering her hand gun, jumped up to the fire escape ladder and moved up quickly. Once on the the dark roof, she slowly walked to a large pane of glass. She slowly looked over to catch a glance of what was inside. By what she knew of the schematics of building, she was over her target, which was a small laboratory where a lethal virus was being kept. Supposedly, the terrorists who had funded the research for the virus were planning to infect the world leaders at a Summit meeting on a small island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The meeting was set for tomorrow and that was not a good sign. The plan was to grab it and bring it back to Section for analysis. It could've been considered routine, but the fact that Alana was the carrier made Nikita slightly doubtful of the success of the mission. 

**"Clear," **whispered Nikita softly, her word would set everything off. Alana and Alex would brake in and they would have fifteen seconds to get the vial, set the charge and leave before anyone would be alerted. The rest of the team would watch their backs and take out any hostiles while the virus was extracted from the building. 

Michael gave the word and things were set into motion. Moments later, Nikita saw Alana run over to the main console and activate the sequence for the computer to allow access to the vials. Alex followed closely, he was more alert, his gun ready to shoot. Time slowed to Nikita as the anticipation of success dawned on her. Her heart beat quickly as she willed the new recruit to succeed. Alana stepped to the storage unit, which slowly lifted the vials out of their deep freeze. She grabbed one and stuffed it into the pocket at her thigh, designed for the transport. 

Alana turned suddenly, her gun up already. Nikita heard two shots go off and Alex went down. She was ready to jump in but a single command from Michael stopped her and forced her to watch. Men surrounded the two, guns trained on both. However, despite all the yells, Alana kept her gun trained on the single man who held nothing in his hands. She slowly made her way to Alex and kneeled down, without taking her eyes or moving her gun away from the man. Alex's face, contorted in controlled pain, looked up at the woman for a moment before standing up on his one good leg and leaning onto the woman for support. Nikita felt a wave of relief at seeing that the man was not seriously injured. Alana said something, which appeared to affect some of the younger men whom surrounded them both but some of the more experienced men just adjusted their grips on their guns. The man pointed to both but Alana's gun instantly went to the pocket where the vial was nestled away safely. Seconds later, the whole room exploded in gun fire. Men went down like flies and soon the rest of the Section One team had eliminated the rest of the hostiles. It was that simple.

**"Get out of there," **Michael told her and the rest of the team and they all slowly made their way out. Once away from the building, Nikita punched the button and the building instantly went up in flames. She looked over to find Alana helping Alex to the van. He looked like hell but alive. 

Soon they were in the van and heading home. Alex sat there, one of his hands holding his shot leg and his arm slung over Alana's shoulders. Alana leaned back and closed her eyes, her fingers still curled around her gun. She didn't appear to be that bad off, a gun wound to her shoulder and that was it. For someone who had just entered field work, she was taking it rather easily. 

**"Do you have it?" **Michael asked Alana, referring to the vial. He didn't bother to look up at her just as she didn't bother to look up at him. She nodded slowly and holstered her weapon. It was that simple. 

Nikita gave a sigh and leaned back. Something was bothering her about what she had seen. Something just wasn't right with Alana. 


End file.
